


The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Rules the World

by Night-Mare (Aoife)



Series: Cradle 'verse [1]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Author loves to chat in the Comments, BAMF Dino, CEDEF Xanxus, Flame Active Character(s), Pre-Canon, Varia Dino
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-18 02:18:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 6,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10607250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/pseuds/Night-Mare
Summary: Faced with a choice, Dino chooses his potential Rain. Nothing will ever quite be the same again.





	1. 12

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [Aoife_Prompt_Collection_KHR](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Aoife_Prompt_Collection_KHR) collection. 



> It looks like this fic is going to spawn a whole set of side stories, covering events mentioned in passing, or from different points of view. Currently written/planned are:
> 
> 1\. [When is a Kidnapping not a Kidnapping?](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10673526) \- Tsuna on being kidnapped.  
> 2\. [Frenemies and Fireworks](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10717512) \- Xanxus on events.  
> 3\. [Chatelaine](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10736868) \- Nana, healing.  
> 4\. [Shigure Soen Ryu](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10700850) \- How Tsuyoshi and Takeshi end up in Italy.  
> 5\. [Herbivores and Carnivores, Oh My!](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10821690) \- Kyoya's rampage.  
> 6\. [Cuckoos in the Nest](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10788357) \- Shamal as parent.  
> 7\. [Them Bones](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10719555) \- Dino's first kill.  
> 8\. [Mist and Mischief](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10829940) \- the fall of the Estraneo  
> 9\. [Candle, Candle Burning Bright](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10835775) \- Hayato loses his temper with his 'father'  
> 10\. [Mothering Mists]() \- Nana and Mukuro's relationship  
> 11\. [Turning Tables](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10811964) \- Nana, Shamal and Tsuyoshi's relationship  
> 12.[ Bite You to Death]() \- Hibari and the Varia  
> 13\. [Click, click, boom]() \- Spanner, maniacal laughter and being coopted.  
> 14\. [You are my Sunshine]() \- Lal and Mammon tease Reborn about Tsuna.  
> 15\. [Hunting Hibari](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10828560) \- Fon on his Cloudy Grandson's rampage  
> 16\. [On Catching Clouds]() \- Fishing for Skull  
> 17\. [Little Prince]() \- Fuuta's arrival  
> 18\. [I'm Not a Cake Topping]() \- Dino's Lightning  
> 19\. [Inappropriate Imprint]() \- Takeshi stalks Squalo, much to Tsuyoshi's amusement.  
> 20\. [An Inherited Burden]() \- Aria on events.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dino Cavallone is thirteen. He bears the Sky Flame, and is his Father's heir.

"- I've got a Rain." The words were quiet; if his hearing hadn't been quite as acute as it was, Reborn doubted he would have heard it. He makes a continue gesture at the clumsy teenage Sky he's here to tutor, and the boy does. "Or at least, the two of us, we're teetering on the edge of harmonizing. He's why I'm not fighting Papa on this, sir. If I can't show him I'm serious about -" Dino waved his hand encompassing the Familiga, "- all this, and about being his Sky, then he's going to reject me." He can work with that as motivation. He thinks for a moment that the Cavallone heir is done speaking, but something makes him hesitate before responding to what he’s been told; the next words out of the teen's mouth make that hesitation worthwhile, as they identify the Rain in question, and suggest that his student is starting to trust him. "He's obsessed with his sword, and becoming Sword Emperor, sir.”

Which meant defeating the current Sword Emperor, and that would make his student’s Rain the Varia’s boss if he succeeded. An oh would have shaped Reborn's lips if he hadn't been who he was; his student had more potential that he'd expected if he'd been able to attract an Active Rain like the current Superbi spare. The teenage swordsman was already being considered by Timoteo as a Guardian candidate for his two youngest sons. One last chance for the Cavallone to back out, to be the one who rejected the nascent bond. It’d still hurt him, but far less than the alternative. "And if keeping him means following him into the Varia, means you have to fully embrace our world?" The question is pointed, and more than a little mean, but given the teen’s reputation, the response it receives will be rather telling.

"He's _mine_." His student bristles and his Flame flare. Good. A motivated student will just make his life easier. And there was a spine to go with those glorious Flames; his student had just been hiding behind a mask; that was a skill he could work with, that would make the boy highly unsettling to the older Dons. It was also entirely possible that he would outshine the Ninth and his eldest with the right set of Guardians. Those two facts meant that it was highly likely that he would end up enjoying this contract far more than he’d expected to when Timoteo had talked him into taking it.


	2. 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dino Cavallone is fourteen. He has a Rain, and he has killed three men.

Squalo and Dino fight like cats and dogs most of the time. It amuses Reborn no end, because the moment he introduces a threat into their immediate environs, the two of them turn on it, destroy it, then return to their argument. Squalo’s viciousness and tendency to throw himself into battle, almost careless of whether he lives or dies is a trait that he’ll have to watch; especially because Dino invariably follows him, determined to keep his Rain alive.

(Some of the battles are genuinely part of his training regime; others are attacks on an heir perceived as weak. Several can be blamed on his student’s Rain’s temper and desire to be the best swordsman - but Dino is remarkable good at defusing the situations that his Rain gets himself into. It amuses him, given that received wisdom has the Rain as the peacemaker amongst the elements.)

His student is still clumsy; it’s growing frustrating. He’s tried all the common causes and their solutions. He’s even worked his way through a good half of the more uncommon causes. The only thing that _slowly_ seems to be helping is the presence of Squalo, Romario, or one of a handful of other Cavallone men. And that much had taken blackmailing the Cavallone Ninth into handing over the Familiga’s Sky Ring to his underage - and in Reborn’s opinion underestimated - heir and having the men kiss the ring once it was on Dino’s finger.

Not that Squalo has yet; and the two teens are still balancing on the knife edge of a full bond. He’s tried to force the issue, but that just makes the two of them turn on him. And whilst they’re no real threat to him, not yet, he needs their trust, if he’s to fashion them into what they must be.

He’s also beginning to think that it’ll take Dino making his bones before his Rain will surrender to him. Which will be interesting; his Sky student is more than capable with handgun and knife - no mafia heir could be anything but and have survived into their teens - but his favoured weapon is the bullwhip. The same bullwhip that he had learnt to use to herd the horses that the Familigia’s name is derived from - and that will be a copper-plated bitch to kill with.

Except that his student succeeds in surprising him. He’d been called away, Timoteo wanting his assessment of the threat a new Familiga posed, and when he’d returned, the teen is subdued, his Rain clingy and Romario teetering on the edge of death. But a piece of territory has - finally - returned to the Cavallone’s possession, and there are reports in the local media of the bodies of three men, each with a characteristic bruise patterns around their throat. The Cavallone Ninth is pleased.

Reborn isn’t sure what he feels.

(He heals Romario, and drives Dino into the ground in training in repayment. Now the Sky is blooded, there is so much more that he can teach him.)


	3. 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dino Cavallone is fifteen. His Rain is in charge of the Varia and Massimo di Vongola is dead.

The three things are not connected. Except -

Dino, as he suspected, has a brain. And a gift. He wonders, idly, if there is a Giglio Nero is the teen's family tree, as it starts with a few, small but unlikely bets on horse races when his father grants him the traditional allowance for an acknowledged Heir. But the teen turns that small, but respectable amount of cash into a reasonable amount of capital, into enough to "buy" his father out of one of the Familiga's quieter casinos and the brothel associated with it. Within six months, it's the most profitable of the establishments in the area.

(Massimo di Vongola finds himself banned from the establishment for breaking one of the few rules Dino himself insisted on. Federico and Xanxus di Vongola help his student kick their older brother off the premise.)

Squalo Superbi defeats Tyr; not that that was unexpected, for those with the eyes to see, but it still sends the Vongola Familiga into disarray. A fifteen year old Active Rain, sworn to the Heir of another Familiga as it's Head changes the dynamics between the main Familiga and the Varia - and between the Varia and the CEDEF. It leaves what once was a tight defensive net lousy with holes. Not because of any action of Squalo's, who Reborn is now _also_ tutoring, but.

(The Varia no longer watch over the Vongola boys; instead they trust to their partial Guardian sets - or in the case of Xanxus, the youngest, his father's Lightning Guardian rides herd on him.)

Dino has zero tolerance for anyone abusing the whores that look to him for protection. More and more of them look to him for protection for precisely that reason, which only increase the capital available to his student to work with. He takes great delight in teaching the Johns to respect his girls. Mostly the bodies aren't found, but the one or two that are - or that Reborn sees before the Cavallone men dispose of them - have that same distinctive braided bruise across their throats.

(Massimo di Vongola is heavy handed with whores and is angry when his favourite bordello comes under Cavallone control. He is found dead, six weeks after he disappears; his body too decayed for any such bruises to be visible.)

Squalo Superbi drags his Sky with him into the Varia compound whilst Reborn isn’t there to stop him. Dino does surprisingly well there, but his position as Cavallone Heir thwarts Squalo’s attempt to get his Sky to take command. He does however gain a Name before Reborn drags them both back to lessons again - and more capital for his resurrection work. And when Reborn loses track of the two teens, they invariably turn out to be on a mission.

(Xanxus di Vongola is angry; his Flames destructive, and rare. Timoteo sends him to the CEDEF for training and to work through his fury. Lal Mirch takes him as her student, and bitches at Reborn frequently.)


	4. 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dino Cavallone is sixteen. The CEDEF is at war with itself, and his father is dead.

Two teenage assassins, one of whom is suppose to be the Heir to a Major Familiga and their following of _eccentric_ fellow assassins are a headache as students. Especially with the way the two of them occasionally escape him to take on assassination missions together when the Rain gets bored. But with Lal's new status as Xanxus di Vongola's instructor, he clearly has life easier than she does. The youngest of Timoteo's sons has a temper, and a highly destructive Flame, and she has to beat respect into him. And that doesn't even touch the personality clash between the two Skies at the top of the CEDEF.

The two Arcobaleno end up dragging all three of their students to Mafia Land, and throw them at Colonello for a couple of days to give themselves a break; in hindsight, that was probably a mistake. The three of them get on like a house on fire; there is running and screaming, and Lal curses at him when she loses track of the Wrath Sky she’s supposed to be tutoring and finds him in the Varia Compound.

Things come to head in the summer that Dino is sixteen. Enrico, Xanxus’s older brother - the one who he would be content to follow - dies in a shoot out with the new Familiga, and Iemitsu and Timoteo refuse Xanxus permission to annihilate them. The three of them do so anyway, leading the Varia’s assassins against them; their self-assigned mission is, as a Varia led mission always is, successful. They’re met on their return by the two older Skies. Dino comes out of the “discussion” more or less unscathed, but Xanxus, being son to one of the Skies and notionally subordinate to the other finds himself grounded.

Being grounded does nothing for the teen’s temper. But he is a genius, and he throws himself into learning how to manipulate the CEDEF. He and Lal achieve something like a Guardian bond, which surprises her, and Xanxus also picks up two child Guardians - both Flame Active. Basil stays with him inside the CEDEF, but Belphegor is too unstable, too obsessed with blood for an intelligence agency, and ends up with Squalo in the Varia Compound.

Iemitsu drives Xanxus up the wall, and he mutters about killing the man. A less distracted Dino would have intervened then, being one of the few who could talk Xanxus out of his rasher actions, but his father chose that summer to die, leaving him in charge of the ramshackle edifice that was the parts of the Cavallone empire he hadn't already been in control of. Iemitsu ends up badly injured, Xanxus frozen at his hands - apparently the older Sky had learned to use Primo's technique from his Japanese journals.

Timoteo refuses to insist that Iemitsu defrost Xanxus; not when the older Sky had lost an eye and been badly scarred by the teen's Wrath, and Dino has burnt any favours the two men may have earned him in helping Xanxus annihilate his brother's killers. He shelters Belphegor instead, and pays Lal to watch over Basil, and buries his frustrations in his resurrection project.

(And Reborn later discovers, in learning the Zero Point technique.)


	5. 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dino Cavallone is seventeen. He is the Cavallone Decimo, and he is frustrated - and not just with the Vongola Nono.

For Dino, being _the_ Cavallone at seventeen is complicated. It separates him from his Rain who has to take on more of the running of the Varia without him, and his ascension raised his profile enough that he couldn't do assassinations without a Mist and Mammon, the only Mist good enough to hide his Sky for him, charged through the nose to accompany him. Not that he'd ever done that many assassinations. He mostly had taken the ones his Rain had laughingly described as the 'righteous' missions. Abusive husbands. That sort of thing. Ones that required some actual subtlety.

(His Rain could do subtle but it made him grumpy; the senior Lightning was an automaton, Xanxus's Bel, who had terrified the Varia's Storms into obedience despite his age, was an annihilator at heart and Mammon was more information broker than assassin. The less said about the senior Cloud, the better and the senior Sun was a pervert.)

Being Decimo means stepping into his father's shoes, and fuck, he wishes he'd taken on more, earlier. The books are a mess. His casinos are supporting half the Familiga and he can't supplement his income anymore. Reborn at least has decided to stick around, and he has Romario and the other men who swore themselves to him, but he has to fight the rest of his father's under-bosses every step of the way.

(They claim he's too young, that he should concentrate on finding a Wife and/or Guardians - depending mostly on whether they had a daughter/niece/grand-daughter in roughly the right age range or a Flame Active son/nephew/grandson. Or that he's not made his bones, and he wants to show them that he has; the fact that everyone seems to have picked up the use of his Varia Name from his Rain, and yet have failed to connect it to his kills annoys him no end.)

And Federico di Vongola is an ass. His Guardians are doing nothing to rein in the one surviving and unfrozen Vongola Sky, and Dino wants to beat the man bloody on principle. He swaggers and crows and throws his weight as "Vongola Decimo" around, but does nothing worthwhile. He drops hints to his own tutor, but they just earn him a shake of Reborn's head. He doubles down on his studies of the Zero-Point technique; he's seen it performed and he has an excellent memory, but it takes him another six months before he can even reliably call his Flames to his hands the way the technique seems to necessitate.

(He makes it a ritual to ask Nono to defrost his Xanxus, each and every time they meet. It's bratty of him, but his family is resurgent, their areas of operations don't particularly overlap and Nono at least knows where his nickname comes from. He gets slapped down, but at least he knows Xanxus isn't being forgotten.)


	6. 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dino Cavallone is Eighteen. He has a love-hate relationship with the Poison Scorpion and _technically_ has four wards.

Dino Cavallone first met Bianchi - the girl who would one day be known as the Poison Scorpion - when he was eight. She’d been three, and her father was trying to persuade his father to arrange a marriage between the two of them. She was a tiny thing with the pink hair of Primo’s Storm Guardian - which was supposed to be a selling point. His father turned hers down.

He met her again when he was thirteen and she was eight. It was - apparently - when her obsession with his tutor started. She hadn’t actually registered to him at the time, being more concerned with his tutor’s ridiculous antics, and keeping his Rain from escaping him.

He’s eighteen now, and she’s thirteen, and he hates her for the freedom she has. She’s fled her Family; she has a Name and people treat her with cautious respect. Reborn has even seen her work a hit - and he can tell his tutor is thinking about taking her on as a protege. He’d pity her, except that she’s gotten the idea that Reborn’d be more likely to take her on if she killed Dino.

She’s tried three times in the last three weeks, and what he wants to do is to wrap his whip around her throat and use it to throttle her. Except she’s thirteen, she’s Named, and his tutor is testing him. He catches her on the fourth attempt, and dumps her on the tender mercies of his Rain and the rest of the eccentrics that inhabit the Varia Compound.

Trident Shamal turns up on his doorstep demanding to know where she is a week later. The only thing that stays his hand, is that for all the man is a flirtatious ass, he will stop if a woman says no. When he tells him where he dumped the Scorpion and why, he finds himself with a ten-year old run-away heir, half way to a Name of his own, on his hands. He’s sorely tempted to kill their father; it would be a service to the rest of the Mafia.

The boy and Belphegor get along like a house on fire. There is almost as much running and screaming as there was when he and Xanxus and Squalo had been introduced and that gives him an idea. He throws the pair of them and Basil at Colonello and leaves from Mafia Island to follow up on something that he’d overheard Lal bitching to Reborn about. Doing so covers his trail beautifully.

He finds what he’s looking for in Japan. He should feel at least a little guilty for kidnapping Iemitsu’s wife and son, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And really; he should have protected them better. The man doesn’t even notice they’re gone, and the addition of a baby Sky - once unsealed - to his little menagerie just makes it easier to manage.

And unsealing Tsunayoshi’s Sky is _easy_ , next to mastering Zero Point. And next to not killing his new Storm for her lack of self control when it comes to poison cooking. Or his tutor, for his laughter about his situation.


	7. 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dino Cavallone is Nineteen, too soft for his own good, and has his (second) best friend back (sort of).

His intention had been to swap Tsunayoshi and his mother for Xanxus, but that plan hadn't survived contact with the little bullied and Sealed Sky he'd found when he'd arrived in Namimori. Nor with his equally Sealed and damaged Mist of a mother. Instead he'd bent his own ethics almost as far as he would permit himself to and unsealed both of them, then stabilised Nana Sawada with his own Flame - he'd call in the favour that Trident Shamal owed him when he got the pair of them back to his estate in Italy. It also made for one more black mark against Iemitsu's name - not that he needed any more reasons to want to kill the man that the damage he'd done to the Alliance and his freezing of Xanxus.

It did change his plans though. Nana would make an excellent Chatelaine for his main estate, and with him having not yet married - nor was he planning to in the short term and with his mother dead - she could preside over that side of his estates for the time being, which would make her feel useful while Shamal worked out what the fuck Iemitsu had done to her - whether intentional or not. (Whilst Bianchi had the training to fulfil that role, she was far happier spending her time with Squalo in the Varia compound; she emerged from time to time, when she declared it "necessary" to play Guardian for the wider Mafia. He kept her carefully far away from her father for now.)

He'd had to refashion his plans, which took time - and was disgusted when Iemitsu didn't even seem to notice his family was "missing". But that also led him into negotiations with Mammon, and between the Mist Arcobaleno and Lal Mirch, and the fact that he'd mastered the Zero-Point technique just before he'd kidnapped Tsunayoshi and Nana, they successfully extracted Xanxus from CEDEF HQ and replaced him with a Mist 'clone'. It was costing him more money than he could probably afford and a favour each from Reborn, Colonello and Lal to get the greedy little Mist to cooperate, but they were successful.

It takes Reborn and Trident Shamal working flat out to keep Xanxus alive on defrosting, and it's touch and go for enough weeks afterwards that he ends up seriously worried about Belphegor going on a rampage. The Zero-Point Ice had frozen everything including Xanxus's three Guardian bonds and his Flames, but now he was defrosted they were fluctuating as wildly as he'd ever seen, and while Lal and Basil could both conceal it, Bel wasn't particularly stable at the best of times.

Of course, that's when his Rain decided to disappear.

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto is at least as damaged as Nana Sawada was. And Takeshi Yamamoto is a quiet little boy who clings onto Tsuna and Nana like they're a lifeline; there's a fledgling Guardian bond there, like there is between Tsuna and Hayato, and it makes Reborn so gleeful that between that and the fact that he was the first one to resort to kidnapping someone, he can't punish Squalo. That much.

(He just orders him to keep Bel contained until Xanxus is capable of doing so himself.)


	8. 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dino Cavallone is twenty. He's committed treason against a nominally allied Don three times and is strongly considering doing it again. He regrets nothing.

He has killed one of the Vongola boys and is debating killing a second. Seriously debating it. Federico di Vongola is an ass. And a wastrel; and even his younger brother wants him dead. Xanxus is infuriated with him. Over his lack of response to his freezing, his lack of interaction with the Family's businesses - even the fact that as the only apparent heir left, Federico has made no effort to secure the succession. He didn't know Xanxus lived, and he certainly didn't know about Tsunayoshi.

They have two perfectly good heirs available; even if Tsunayoshi is too young to command unaided, his relationship with the two Guardians he has is far more promising than the way Federico rides rough shod over his own. Lal Mirch had been the one that had provided the final piece, the evidence that Iemitsu was Vongola blood too, descended from Primo, which made Tsunayoshi a nameable heir. If they killed Federico and Timoteo now -

Iemitsu will have to go too, and Xanxus has already said that he wanted the CEDEF, had figured out what he was going too do with it, and had accepted that he wasn't going to be Decimo, that Tsunayoshi's existence and his previous presence in the CEDEF meant that he was ineligible. Tsunayoshi would need training. Lots of training but. Better him than Federico, who was wenching and whoring and not standing up to Timoteo.

Federico has been edging onto Dino's kill list for three years. He's stayed his hand, hoping the other man would shape up, wanting to get his friend off ice, so that there was another heir waiting, ready, to stabilise the Alliance.

There's multiple people who want Iemitsu dead; Tsuyoshi who is healing under Shamal's care, Nana who still loves him, but hates him, despairs of him for not noticing that Dino had stolen them away. She had forgiven Dino for doing so - and agreed that any decision involving her interacting with Iemitsu would need Arcobaleno supervision. She could love him easier dead though, she admits that.

They're still at the planning stage; this will be complex, killing three Skies, whether sequentially or simultaneously, will be tricky. Federico will be the easiest, but the others ...

Reborn gets a phone call during one of their planning meetings; Lal and Mammon eye him warily when he chuckles audibly, and Dino and Xanxus both wince, as does Squalo.

"Fon would like to ask who was stupid enough to steal two of his nephew's 'herbivores'."

The little Cloud is a stubborn and grumpy little piece of shit. And fast and smart and most importantly, Flame Active. It's the only way Dino can explain the presence of the pre-teen this deep in Cavallone territory, surrounded by unconscious Cavallone foot soldiers; at least they are only unconscious. If he'd killed them - well, the deaths of his men make him Rage, and a Raging Sky is a force of nature, especially when they have elements willing to Rage with them that are quite as deadly as the ones he's quietly gathered.

He counts three assassins as his own now, Shamal having slid into a bond with him whilst healing Xanxus and Nana and Tsuyoshi; part gratitude, part respect, part Hayato and Bianchi's fault. His Mist, his Rain and his Storm are all quietly very, very dangerous. (Part of him itches to just go with the coup option to deal with the mess that Nono is making. Just to see the Alliance's Dons' faces when he and his really let loose.)

(That lack of Rage from Timoteo on Enrico and even Massimo's death is part of what has he and Xanxus so angry with the older Don.)

But he doesn't need to Rage. Not when the child has been so carefully, vicious and so very persistent. And he has an Arcobaleno on his shoulder to focus the child's ire. He has to send Romario for Tsuna and Takeshi in the end, to allow Tsuna and his Rain to talk the little Cloud down. (Even if Tsuna does only go "Hiiieee" when he sees Fon's boy.) It also turns out that a child Cloud is more flexible on the nature of territory than an adult one.

And two Mists - Xanxus having accidentally bribed Mammon into becoming his - might just make an audacious plan possible.


	9. 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dino Cavallone is twenty-one, and the lie about Reborn still tutoring him should be getting very thin.

Compared to the scared and Sealed Sky Dino had kidnapped several years prior, Tsuna had flourished; that that flourishing had included him accidentally taking down a minor Familiga, and rescuing a trio of Flame Active children was _mostly_  irrelevant.

And Dino was right. Killing Federico di Vongola was easy. In the end they let Bianchi kill him, though she did so with a throw away pistol, rather than her more customary Poison Cooking, just to throw off the investigation. The fact that he allowed a fifteen year old girl to separate him from his Guardians is shameful. As is the fact that Bianchi was able to put two bullets in his brain, without a single injury - and then immolate him.

The lack of Rage, of response from the two skies at the top of the Alliance, despite the death of their last putative heir - who worst of all, was found the way he was, quite obviously having been burnt to the bones by a Storm after having been killed 'execution' style - could only have enraged Xanxus more, if he hadn't been planned Federico's death himself after seeing the evidence against him.

It throws the Alliance into disarray, and Reborn is, predictably, summoned by Timoteo - who asks him if Dino is ready to do without him. He smiles; Dino has been ready since before his father died. He'd killed at fourteen and made a profit from some of the least profitable parts of the Cavallone territory at fifteen. He asks "Why?"

Timoteo sends for Iemitsu, who tells him about his son, Tsunayoshi. He manages to avoid laughing. Tsuna - and his mother, who Iemitsu doesn't even _mention_ \- have been in Dino's hands for almost _three_ years and the idiot hasn't even realised. He's had tuition of the boy since he was eight - and under him, the boy has four of his six elements, already. The acquisition of the fourth had nearly turned him grey, despite the 'Arcobaleno' curse and the fact that Tsuna hadn't been noticed during the incident just drove home how blind the Alliance's senior leadership had become.

Tsuna still needed a Lightning and a Sun Guardian, but he'd rather see the boy in charge of the Alliance with Xanxus at the CEDEF, and Dino's Varia as his 'teeth', than these two senile old men. The longer they could hold off on Tsuna having to take charge though, the better.

Reborn drives a hard bargain, demanding guardianship and control of access, as he'd agreed with Tsuna and Nana and Dino. Iemitsu protests when he's included in that control of access - but Timoteo agrees - and goes further, naming him as godfather to his heir.

They haven't even had to use any illusions, yet.


	10. 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dino Cavallone is twenty-two. He despairs of Timoteo and Iemitsu, and is going to go grey prematurely thanks to Tsuna and his ~~minions~~ Guardians.

Tsuna is flourishing; the Flame Mafia who are aware of him, adore him. He's still short two Guardians, though with the way Reborn is acting around the young Vongola, it's entirely possible that he's being sucked into the boy's Sky. It probably helps that Reborn has seen both Mammon and Lal successfully bond to Xanxus - whose Sky Tsuna already matches. It just leaves them with finding him a Lightning if that's the case. Verde isn't an option; not given that he's tried to infiltrate the estate more than once to get access to Mukuro and the other two boys rescued from the Estraneo.  
  
(Each time he tries, he gets his ass kicked, by various people. The most comical having been when Nana did it while smiling sweetly and holding her frying pan - which happened to be a Leon-construct.)  
  
There's a lot of things that can be done with a conditional Mist illusion; especially when people are willing to pull the wool over their own eyes; Tsuna has actually visited the CEDEF and stood right in front of Iemitsu, and hadn't been recognised. In fact he heard his 'father' raving about his darling Tuna-fishy and his wife and how cute they were.  
  
(Tsuna's not impressed. He's really not impressed. He's so not impressed that Lal ends up dragging him out for a 'training' session that ends with him flat on his back, breathing hard and bruised, and complaining to Xanxus about his evil Cloud.)  
  
Xanxus moves into the Varia compound at least temporarily, citing his need to get himself back to 'fighting' fitness and complications around Bel and his ambiguous sanity. He and Bianchi flirt in slightly disturbing ways and try and kill each other, and that's more than Dino wanted to know about his friend and one of his 'wards'. But it is less disturbing than the eyeful that leads to him finding about one of the other relationships on the estate; he reminds everyone that locks are a thing for a good reason, thank you very much.  
  
(Having a pack of Flame Active pre-teens, at least two of whom have diagnosable mental disorders running around the Cavallone Estate on and off is interesting; it's just as well his men adore the little Sky that leads the pack, and that said Sky's Cloud has decided that he will take himself off to the Varia compound when he wants to 'bite someone to death', rather than taking it out on them. Mukuro and his silent duo of co-rescuees spend a lot of time around Nana, confused and entranced by her and her willingness to mother them.)  
  
He finishes the year wanting to strangle Hayato. He doesn't; Shamal's admitted that Hayato is, in fact, his son, and Shamal's his Mist, even if they haven't formalised anything, but. He's really, really tempted. Especially when Tsuna and Hayato accompany him and Squalo to an event, learning some of the things that can't be so easily taught and Hayato's 'legal' father makes a grab for him. He goes up in multi-tonal Flames that it takes both he and Squalo to control before they consume more than just the old Don. Tsuna at least looks sheepish afterwards, but Hayato is unrepentant, and the way Bianchi and Shamal congratulate him doesn't help, either.


	11. 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dino Cavallone is twenty-three. He's at war with the Vongola, though he's not sure Timoteo di Vongola realises that. And he has both the remaining heirs on his side.

Aria di Giglio-Nero is the one who braves the Cavallone Estate first. Her own Lightning, her Right Hand and Skull accompany her, though the latter is obviously present under duress; Reborn and Lal and Mammon and Fon are all waiting for her. Of the two Arcobaleno missing, Verde is forbidden from coming with a hundred miles of Mukuro and his bonded duo, under threat of being handed to Nana; and Colonello is required on the Island, and he's content for Lal to speak for him, anyway.

Kyoya pounces on the diminutive Cloud when he appears; he's been woefully short of other Clouds to exchange Flame techniques with, and Fon just smiles when Skull squeaks and begs for rescue from the Storm's grandson. Dino groans; he's not sure Kyoya needs any encouragement, not after he managed to break both Levi's legs last time he goaded the man into a sparring match.

She mutters about him being a catalyst for change, and there's a ring case being opened and the four Arcobaleno present start shouting at Aria simultaneously - but she only smiles, and offers the winged ring inside to Dino. The gem is hypnotic; and no one is fast enough to stop him from slipping it onto his finger and flaring his Flames. Whatever it is that she sees when he looks back up from the Ring's depths makes her laugh, and promise not to tell Don Vongola that he had tried to Seal his own heir's Storm.

Whatever the effect the ring is suppose to have, he doesn't really notice. It's just an exceptional pure Flame focus - but he does find that his intuition is sharper; his dreams more vivid.

The next person to brave the Estate after his very public telling off of Timoteo di Vongola is a twenty-something Lightning, his Flames shock-y and freshly awoken, and a five year old with more stable Flames - the Lightning collapses when confronted by Dino and the other adult Guardians in residence, hysterical in relief. Apparently he'd snatched up the boy and run when Nono had tried to Seal him so he could be sent to an orphanage, and had threatened to Seal the man himself when he'd objected - he'd heard about Dino's response to Nono's offer to Seal Hayato, and begged for Sanctuary.

There's no sign of any retaliation, no threats, no quiet attacks on Cavallone properties in almost four months; Xanxus despairs of his father, especially when told about the two Lightnings and the lack of response to Hayato immolating a man and Dino's defiance of the man. And there is only so long Dino can contain eight teenage Flame users; especially ones he knows can and will kill in their own defence - he remembers what he and Squalo were like at thirteen, damnit.

It's his intuition that has him sweeping into the village, Squalo and Bianchi at his back mere hours after the boys. There's signs of a Flame battle; shards of Zero-Point Ice and he _Rages_.

Squalo staves off succumbing to his Rage long enough to call out the Varia and Xanxus, and to place Tsuyoshi and Nana on guard, and then he's swept under - especially as Bianchi is frantic about Hayato and she and Dino are feeding off each other. The Mare Rings on their fingers glitter and warm.

Iemitsu is scarred and Raging when they find the boys; Mukuro and Hayato enclosed in Zero-Point Ice, Takeshi and a strange boy unconscious and Kyoya and Tsuna are flagging, desperately looping their Flames together to try and hold the man off; his Mist illusion still holds -

It still holds and Iemitsu has the full strength that Tsuna is still growing into; he's a Vongola Sky for all he doesn't share the name, and he has his full growth, where as Tsuna is still a thirteen year old boy, whose Flames fed by desperation to protect his own and a Cloud powerful enough to hold an Arcobaleno pacifier.

It takes both Dino and Xanxus and their Guardians, and the fading Tsuna to kill the man; it takes Shamal and Romario and Reborn and Lussuria to save Mukuro and Hayato once Dino can scrape together enough Flames to defrost them, and they're at _War_.


	12. 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dino Cavallone is twenty-four and has seen saints and monsters; of the two he prefers the honest monster to the duplicitous saint.

It’s a very one-sided war.

Xanxus walks back into the CEDEF as bold as brass, and the organisation is _his_. Lal and Basil have prepared the ground for him beautifully, and the organisation reforms around him, reshaping itself to him and moving into Harmony with his Will. It helps that two of his Guardians have been running it for years, and he installs Mammon at the centre of the web, which delights his Mist and magnifies the effectiveness of the CEDEF by ten-fold.

They just go dark to the Ninth, quoting reorganisation in the wake of Iemitsu’s death. Which gives them control of one half of the Vongola Rings - which Xanxus gleefully presents to Tsuna and his guardians - including Reborn who tries to deny that he’s Tsuna’s Guardian. Mukuro cackles and disappears, and Mammon groans at his apprentice’s mischief.

The Mist returns with the other half of the rings, and an adult Mist that looks a lot like him. The adult Mist is somewhere between ghost, illusion and creation, and tied to the Rings.

He lunges at Tsuna, who smiles and side steps him, bringing his Flames up without the aid of the Vongola Ring, and pushes them at the Mist who stops abruptly, and throws back his own head and _laughs_. There’s a mutter of _finally_ , and the Rings are glowing, the other first generation members are tumbling out, and several of them bear a ridiculous resemblance to the tenth generation.

They stand toe-to-toe with the first generation, the tenth generation, with the Arcobaleno Sky and the Mare Sky at their backs, and with him observing, and no-one speaks, no-one moves -

Tsuna is the one who breaks the silence, wide Sky-orange eyes, and the bracelets he uses aglow.

The Primo Mist grins, and the Sky scowls, and the Rings glow, bright and brilliant, and the world reshapes around them; the Vongola coat of arms etches itself onto the floor, and eight more Skies appear - the last on his knees.

There’s still overwhelming silence and then the one female Sky steps forward and slaps the Ninth _hard_ across the face, leaving a trickle of blood and a blooming bruise in the wake of her hand.

Xanxus’s grinning, his eyes damp, and mouthing a name; if it wasn’t for the formality of the position, he’d hug his grandmother for that response to their shared relative’s idiocy. The other Skies swarm him, in an angry buzz of voices, and Primo and Tsuna are still eying each other, but the words are spoken, and the Vongola’s Sky Ring glows in response.

The Tenth Generation are _technically_ in command. They just have to finish wresting it from the Ninth - but the Rings are theirs, and most of the Mafia will follow those Rings. It will be a long, long battle to finish bringing the Vongola back under control, but between the four of them, they'll manage it.

(Timoteo di Vongola is found, unconscious. He does not come back around. His Cloud is the one who fights their takeover the longest, until Kyoya runs him to earth, a delighted grin on his face at being allowed to go all out against a fellow carnivore.)

It's Nana and Bianchi who _really_ scare the older generation, though.

They are the two faces of Mafia women, the hit-woman and the home-maker, and the way the menfolk around to them defer to them and value their opinions, and refuse to shut them up - that changes things. Especially when they encourage other women to find their Flames and to _use_ them.

(Though half of their 'reforms' are only cover for Xanxus rooting out trouble makers, the other half are deadly serious. There will be no more Estraneo. No more child sacrifices in the side streets if they have their way - and the two of them are strong enough in their own right to demand that, even if Tsuna and Dino, and Xanxus and Aria weren't standing behind them.)

The Vongola in Tsunayoshi's hands is just as ruthless as it was in the Second, and the Eighth's hands, but there is also the compassion and the mercy of the First - just tempered into something more human, more able to thrive in the world it has found itself in.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not done with this 'verse, though I am definitely done with this arc of it.
> 
> (Though there will be even more side stories, I'm sure, covering some of the events only touched on lightly. Kyoya's crushes on his fellow carnivores, and Bianchi and Nana's railroading of the old Dons springs to mind.)

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